This article goes in depth on companies that are rising prices and how they are trying to walk a fine line between driving people to purchase store brands instead of more expensive brand names. Nonetheless, another round of price increases is predicted as their costs rise.
Companies like Walmart, Whirlpool and Weber (the grill people) are already reporting decreased demand as inflation takes its toll. McDonalds is seeing people veer away from combo meals and eat less expensive items from their value menu, but they are also gaining customers as some people step down from casual sit-down dining and visit less expensive fast-food restaurants instead. How long, I wonder, will it be before more of these people are eating at home instead?
I recognize that many of my readers don’t subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and therefore might not be able to access this page, but this article included a useful tool. You could select items you buy and the page respond to tell you your personal level of inflation. As you can see above (click the image to make it larger), my personal inflation rate was 30.43 percent, despite the government claiming an overall rate of 9.06 percent.
